Teenprenuer, looking to expand my knowledge and have meaningful conversations.

[Abdullah Cader]

I've leveraged my country's 'crisis' into a profitable business.
I'm from Sri lanka and in the past 5-7 months we've had a huge economical crisis, inflation rates became the highest in Asia, fuel lines in petrol stations sometimes more than 2km long, constant powercuts and costly products everywhere. This crisis made me think... how can I use this to my advantage while still helping out the people of my country? After a week or so of planning i figured it out! I took out a small loan to buy a handful of electrical bikes in bulk from a supplier, and because of the high demand I did some marketing and I made more than double of the amount I invested into my business in less than 2 months, this worked well however the situation in my country has stabilized, so the bikes have gone out of demand and with recent school events and exams I have, i've had to put a pause on my entrepreneurial adventures.

The Millionaire fastlane was one of the books that gave me an actual idea on how to run a proper business and I hope to discuss it and read more books, I live with my mom and sister so we aren't very fortunate but we're handling alright. I hope to give my mother a better life because she has sacrificed so much for me.

I am 14 years old and I will build an empire!
@MJ DeMarco

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Chet Shen]

I've leveraged my country's 'crisis' into a profitable business.
I'm from Sri lanka and in the past 5-7 months we've had a huge economical crisis, inflation rates became the highest in Asia, fuel lines in petrol stations sometimes more than 2km long, constant powercuts and costly products everywhere. This crisis made me think... how can I use this to my advantage while still helping out the people of my country? After a week or so of planning i figured it out! I took out a small loan to buy a handful of electrical bikes in bulk from a supplier, and because of the high demand I did some marketing and I made more than double of the amount I invested into my business in less than 2 months, this worked well however the situation in my country has stabilized, so the bikes have gone out of demand and with recent school events and exams I have, i've had to put a pause on my entrepreneurial adventures.

The Millionaire fastlane was one of the books that gave me an actual idea on how to run a proper business and I hope to discuss it and read more books, I live with my mom and sister so we aren't very fortunate but we're handling alright. I hope to give my mother a better life because she has sacrificed so much for me.

I am 14 years old and I will build an empire!
@MJ DeMarco

Its too nice to see you here in this forum, I'm 15 years old and since I've no value to add, I'm going to wish you luck on your journey! Keep the efforts!

 

[Abdullah Cader]

Its too nice to see you here in this forum, I'm 15 years old and since I've no value to add, I'm going to wish you luck on your journey! Keep the efforts!

Thank you Lawtiti, and don't worry about value you can build it up and i wish you the same.

 

[Stargazer]

That's great that you think like this. Connecting some dots.

You saw a problem, thought of a practical solution and implemented it.

Two thought processes for you.

1) You provided electric bikes. What might people want next eg washing machines. ie Next consumer product/service.

2) You helped people get from A to B efficiently. ie You are in the transportation industry. Countries that shrink the product to consumer time scale win.

That's why The Silk Road made China rich. That's why the Roman roads made Rome rich. That's why the canals made Venice rich. That's why the rivers and rail made England rich. The internet is simply the same old thing. I can get abc much faster.

Ther are a few other factors too but essentially if you make it, can you get it to the consumer quickly. You need the infrastructure.

Your country needs a complete upgrade of their transportation infrastructure and someone in 10 years will be doing it once your Government start to get their act together. Why not you? Andrew Carnegie did all right for himself.

Transportation dilemma in Sri Lanka | Daily FT

As a first-year university student, I recall learning Comparative Economics, where my lecturer, using examples from the United States, ..

www.ft.lk

Not saying you need to do any of this, just how to maybe think about going from what does my neighbour need, to what does my town need to what does my country need as an alternative to what does my neighbour need to what else does my neighbour need?

Dan

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Abdullah Cader]

That's great that you think like this. Connecting some dots.

You saw a problem, thought of a practical solution and implemented it.

Two thought processes for you.

1) You provided electric bikes. What might people want next eg washing machines. ie Next consumer product/service.

2) You helped people get from A to B efficiently. ie You are in the transportation industry. Countries that shrink the product to consumer time scale win.

That's why The Silk Road made China rich. That's why the Roman roads made Rome rich. That's why the canals made Venice rich. That's why the rivers and rail made England rich. The internet is simply the same old thing. I can get abc much faster.

Ther are a few other factors too but essentially if you make it, can you get it to the consumer quickly. You need the infrastructure.

Your country needs a complete upgrade of their transportation infrastructure and someone in 10 years will be doing it once your Government start to get their act together. Why not you? Andrew Carnegie did all right for himself.

Transportation dilemma in Sri Lanka | Daily FT

As a first-year university student, I recall learning Comparative Economics, where my lecturer, using examples from the United States, ..

www.ft.lk

Not saying you need to do any of this, just how to maybe think about going from what does my neighbour need, to what does my town need to what does my country need as an alternative to what does my neighbour need to what else does my neighbour need?

Dan

You perfectly summed up my thought process, I saw the title to a thread early which summed up which was similar to my original inspiration to do this, it was 'Selling pickaxes during a gold rush', and another factor which made me come to this decision was what MJ DeMarco said in the millionaire fastlane , to sum it up he basically said look at what people complain about and think on how you could improve it or provide some sort of benefit, the more you help and fix, the more you gain.

And yes, i agree that my country needs a total upgrade, but based on how the corrupt politicians have persecuted the finances it doesn't seem like it will happen soon. Its funny cause the 'villains' of this country are not good at being 'villains' they barely covered their track and eventually when their mishandling of the countries finances became public people revolted.

I believe there's still more i can help my country with but right now I'm not at the freedom to do it but I'm still looking into it.

Since I'm still a teen i can't fully focus on improving the food and agriculture industry but everything has been so costly, people are starving either because they can't afford it or its not available, its a very labor-intensive process to deal with these sectors but i do hope somebody takes action.

Same thing with the floods all over the world to natural disasters, if somebody forges a way to filter this water through private pipelines and harness that to create hydropower, it will be a win-win situation to everyone and this power can be sold for cheap prices, but this idea might have flaws.

Iman Ghadzi said that its better to put practicality over passion which makes sense, but I'm curious... what sort of businesses could be considered practical, I know a handful but I'm trying to properly understand which sectors of the business world have more pragmatical ideas behind it

 

[adnanazmi]

The Millionaire fastlane was one of the books that gave me an actual idea on how to run a proper business and I hope to discuss it and read more books, I live with my mom and sister so we aren't very fortunate but we're handling alright. I hope to give my mother a better life because she has sacrificed so much for me.

I will build an empire!

Same. Hard times build strong men.